Midwife/Midsummer
Angle the knees apart.
Fat afternoon
for a herd of clouds
pumped with quick lightning.
Make the cut a half-inch wide.
Caterpillar dangles
from honeysuckle tracery
flashing a saffron belly.
Use a new sheet for the blood.
In the ecstasy of air,
a muskrat drags mud-caked
hindquarters against a levee.
Save the membrane for a poultice.
A half-blind woodpecker
batters a sweetgum
while the creek convulses in the downpour.
Slide hands into split flesh and hoist out the cry of all seasons.
Originally published in Clackamas Literary Review
